Xinrongji — Restaurant in Beijing

Xin Rong Ji 新荣记 was the first Chinese restaurant in mainland China to achieve the highest and most prestigious 3 Michelin stars.

The restaurant has 3 types of menus: Standard Tasting Menu Classic Set ¥1880, Pescatarian Tasting Menu ¥3680 (no seafood), and Indulgence Set ¥4520. The price does not include 15% service charge. I chose the last set with a total of 16 steps from the appetizer to dessert.

Since its first opening in 1995, Xin Rong Ji has become a giant with many branches of the store achieving Michelin stars, such as in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong. One of the locations of this restaurant - Beijing, which is also the restaurant I ate at today, even holds the highest 3 Michelin stars, the first Chinese restaurant in mainland China to achieve this feat. However, unusually for a restaurant chain of such stature, there is no English website, no online menu, and all reservations must be made by phone. Fortunately, the staff at the Four Seasons Hotel where I stayed helped me solve this problem.

The restaurant is located off the lobby of a super modern office building that was built a few years ago. The relatively simple entrance would be a bit out of place in the large space - a casual observer might think it belongs to a cafe. However, stepping through the open door, my sister and I stepped into a large space with high ceilings decorated in a modern Chinese style. Two open kitchens occupy the center of the room, with dozens of tables placed in the middle and around the restaurant. The place can probably hold hundreds of people at full capacity, yet the restaurant will always only serve about a third of its capacity to ensure quality and speed of service, so don't hurry to indicate that the restaurant is unpopular or empty. Walk-in customers without a reservation are not allowed to sit.

My dinner cost around ¥5000 after service charge per person – certainly not an affordable meal, even by Western standards. My menu included wine pairings. The quality of the wines was particularly good – a Chinese red wine was surprisingly good.

The service throughout the evening was quite good, but the one downside was that the dishes came out too quickly, especially at the beginning of the dinner. Oddly enough, this was very similar to what happened at our dinner the day before at King’s Joy. Both restaurants have 3 Michelin stars, which made me even more suspicious that the problem was with me and not them. After I asked the kitchen to slow down a bit, they did so for the rest of the meal and even offered me a short pause afterwards before serving the next dish.

The highlight of the evening for me was the Mantis shrimp with amber wine sauce. The shrimp was prepared quite nicely, perhaps blanched – it was not overcooked. The sauce was excellent, full of flavor, sweet, a little umami and a touch of wine.

According to Michelin, what sets this Xin Rong Ji branch in Beijing apart from other places (which are not 3 stars) is the Peking duck. So I was really looking forward to it even though I am not a big fan of duck. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the best Peking duck I have ever had. Delicious fried buns, delicious plum sauce, delicious sliced ​​duck that was not too greasy – a perfect combination!

The fish ball soup, yellow croaker and Chinese amber wine were another highlight – the fish balls were beautifully cooked. The chilled dessert that came with sorghum, ice cream and grapefruit was quite delicious. The fragrant mango and the sour and chewy grapefruit pieces made for a great contrast.

Overall, this was the best Chinese meal I have had in China so far. The dishes were flavorful and delicate, with excellent sauces, broths and presentation. There was also a remarkable consistency throughout, with all the dishes being of the same high quality.

¥4922 / 1 person ~ 17.3 million...

this restaurant is one of the favorite dinning experiences i had! as a foreigner lives in beijing, they make sure the staff comes and speak english fluently. for us, we got serviced by Charles, who he has been insightful and done the best job that could be for service. we really appreciated that.

the restro also got like a mini tour that the staff will guide us to the place where it has like a fish tank and many cool ingredients they use, and we can really pick the food from there!. in terms of the food, our favorites is the porkbelly top with abalone, served with small rice. i think this is very very tasty and reasonable price! we also had like pigeon and fishmaw soup which are also okay. in terms of the location, the place tends to be more casual than luxury, but everyone still wears proper (but not formal). the price is also affordable as there are a wide range of price especially for fish which can be up to extremely expensive or affordable one.

overall, we had a good time, and it is worth the money and experience. the food taste is while not the best but still tasty (we are from thailand, so we are very picky about food). the service is the best (thanks charles for making it the best!). recommended for...

Great restaurant with impeccable service.

And it was surprisingly friendly to solo diners like me which is usually hard to find except fast food. I walked in for dinner on a work day (reservations still strongly recommended though), all the tables were reserved but they offered me to sit at the ‘bar’ which turned out to be very spacious seats in front of the open kitchen.

And they offered half size portions for many of the dishes even though not marked on the menu, again another plus for solo diners.

The menu is largely (not the extremely expensive ones) eastern chinese home style cooking performed in a well refined way. Nothing extravagant or dumping pricy ingredients. Just a little bit salty, they offered rice to go with the dishes but I declined - I still ended up eating too much with the complimentary plate...